Language: Welsh - Page 2

Swansea University’s latest Welsh Language Scheme has been approved by The Welsh Language Board. The Scheme outlines how the University will ensure the Welsh language is treated equally to English, as well as steps it will take to promote and encourage the use of Welsh among students, staff, and the public.

The Welsh language is not alone as a minority language facing a difficult future. The equivalent of £60m is spent on promoting and developing the Basque language annually, while in Wales, the Welsh Language Board spends under £14m. So how do the two languages compare?

A new Welsh language pressure group is needed to meet the challenges of modern Wales, a leading academic and activist has warned. Cardiff University’s Simon Brooks argues that Cymdeithas yr Iaith remains "a leftist radical organisation with its roots in 1960s protest" and a new group is needed to lobby the Welsh Government.

The chair of the Welsh Language Society - Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg - has said the group will have to change "radically" in its 50th year. Bethan Williams said protecting Welsh-speaking communities should be the focus of future campaigning. Until now, its aim had been to securing equal status for the Welsh language, alongside English.

There are a few wonderful, practical uses of Welsh: train announcements are often made in Welsh first at train stations, so platform changes usually see Welsh speakers heading for the stairs first, leaving poor English speakers jostling solemnly for seats on packed trains.

Recording and singing in the Welsh language will always be a labour of love, and not a career choice, but it seems an unnecessary burden to be penalized for doing so. And as a very fragile minority language, surely it's popular culture should be encouraged, not forced out of existence.

Heard the one about the badly translated shop sign which reads “wines and ghosts” in Welsh? Or the baffling bilingual road sign that warns Welsh- speaking motorists to beware of “exploding workers”? Now, some of the funniest, most bizarre and downright inept mistranslations ever to have adorned the nation’s highways have been collected together in one book.

The Welsh Language Commissioner will play a pivotal role in the development of a new regulatory system, based on Welsh language standards, to ensure the delivery of Welsh language services to the public. The Commissioner will also advise the Welsh Government and others on language policy and will be able to conduct inquiries into a wide range of matters relating to the Welsh language.

Here at my own institution, Bangor University, we have been at the forefront of Welsh-medium developments in higher education for decades and continue to fully engage with this agenda. There are opportunities at Bangor to study through the medium of Welsh and English in an ever-increasing range of subjects (including music, psychology, law and environmental sciences) ...

Members of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, the Welsh Language Society, have waged a long campaign to get the bilingual Cofnod restored, arguing that the failure to produce a record of the Assembly’s meetings in both languages will undermine Welsh, which legally has equal status with English following a law passed by AMs.

A passion for RS Thomas's poetry has inspired a lecturer from Tokyo to co-author a coursebook in Japanese for those wanting to learn Welsh. Yoshifumi Nagata, 41, teamed up with accomplished Welsh learner Takeshi Koike to produce the book, which has been published this summer in Japan.

As a child, English-born author Jasper Rees would visit Wales twice a year with his Welsh father and their family. In his new book, Bred of Heaven, he catalogues his attempts to reclaim his Welsh roots.

CFW’s recommendations for the new commissioner role are based on its 2010 report Gwasaniaithau: Consumers and the Welsh Language, which looked at the attitudes of Welsh-speaking consumers towards public and private sector services. It found three key areas where work is needed to encourage Welsh speakers to use the services they say they want...

The General Register Office for Scotland said that the statutory fine of £1,000 was to anyone who refused to complete the census form. "It can be filled in Urdu, Punjabi, and even Tagalog, one of the dialects of the Philippines, but not in one of the native languages of Britain," said Mr Turnbull. "I have sent the form back four times asking for a Welsh form."

The Welsh nation is known for its deep-rooted sense of national pride, so it's hardly surprising that the Welsh language continues to form such a passionate part of its culture. Welsh is a truly living language in every sense of the word.

THE number of primary school pupils who speak Welsh fluently is virtually unchanged after 23 years, according to the schools census. The most recent Welsh government figures for 2009/10 show 14,684 pupils aged five or over spoke Welsh fluently at home, or 7.6%. That compared with 14,760 (7.2%) in 1986-87.

Welsh language campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith – aiming to outline a plan to safeguard the use of Welsh in all aspects of modern society – launched Siarter Tynged yr Iaith 2 at the National Eisteddfod.

An advocate of the Welsh language living on a Scottish island has vowed to go to jail rather than fill in his Census form in English. Iain Turnbull, who is furious that he can get the forms in many foreign languages, but not an indigenous British one, faces a £1,000 fine, but insists he will not pay.

“It has always been my opinion, and the opinion of the wider Labour movement in Wales, that legislation may give you a framework, but it will not be what saves and develops the language – because you cannot legislate to make a mother speak Welsh to her children at home in Brynaman. This can only be encouraged, and nurtured.

A COUPLE of language activists will cycle over 70 miles to the National Eisteddfod in Wrexham to highlight the struggle faced by Welsh communities. Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (The Welsh Language Society) members Robin Crag and Kali Stuart will cycle from their home in Nebo near Penygroes next Monday over to the Eisteddfod Maes for a meeting to discuss the future of Welsh as a community language.

With the post of the first-ever Welsh Language Commissioner having been advertised, Minister for Education and Skills Leighton Andrews explains why the role will be critical to delivering the Welsh Government’s vision of a thriving and vibrant Welsh language

Powys County Council is the first Welsh authority to implement a Welsh language recruitment system that is completely integrated with its HR and payroll system. Applicants can search the council’s website for job openings, read supporting recruitment information, and apply for roles – all online and in their first language.

Just under 22% of seven year olds across Wales are now taught through the medium of Welsh with the target of 25% by 2015 and 30% by 2020. Yet there is a huge variation across counties in North Wales with 100% of seven year old taught in Welsh in Gwynedd, 70% on Anglesey, and around 25% in Conwy and Denbighshire.

THE distinctive “Kairdiff” accent spoken by English speakers who are natives of the capital city is directly descended from an old Welsh dialect, according to a TV programme. The old dialect of the South Wales Valleys and the new Welsh dialect emerging in Cardiff will be the focal points of the S4C series Ar Lafar on Monday evening.

A PRESSURE group has been formed by worried parents fighting to save Welsh language teaching in Flintshire. Of the five Welsh medium schools in Flintshire, two are already subject to an ongoing consultation and the group is now fearful for the long-term future of the remaining three.